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July 15, 2013

Things Are Looking Up

WHOI engineer Clay Kunz, left, and Peter Kimball, a recent postdoctoral scholar, explored under Antarctic ice in 2012 using the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Jaguar. During the expedition, organized by the Australian Antarctic Division, the team equipped Jaguar with a camera and upward-looking multibeam sonar to build three-dimensional maps of the underside of sea ice. Researchers communicated with the instrument with an acoustic modem, and received messages about Jaguar's location and ice thickness. Primarily, though, this autonomous vehicle (programmed aboard the ship and put into the water through a hole in the ice) performed missions up to six hours long with only minimal communication. (Photo by Guy Williams, Australian Antarctic Division)